The present invention relates to ink jet printers and in particular, consumable cartridges for ink jet printers.
Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention simultaneously with the present application:
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference.
With the advent of the Internet has come the opportunity for the print media industry to publish xe2x80x9con-linexe2x80x9d rather than producing and distributing traditional paper based publications. On-line publishing has a number of advantages. From the consumer""s point of view, information is available on demand, information can be navigated via hypertext links, information can be searched, and information can be automatically personalized. From the publisher""s point of view, the costs of printing and physical distribution are eliminated and the publication becomes more attractive to advertisers as it can be targeted to specific demographics and linked to product sites.
On-line publication also has disadvantages. Computer screens are inferior to paper. At the same quality as a magazine page, a SVGA computer screen displays only about a fifth as much information. Both CRT""s (Cathode Ray Tubes) and LCD""s (Liquid Crystal Displays) have brightness and contrast problems, particularly, when ambient light is strong. Ink on paper, being reflective rather than emissive is both bright and sharp in ambient light. Accordingly, people have a natural preference to read newspapers, magazines, catalogues, brochures and other publications in a bound paper based format.
Printers that incorporate a binding means may be connected to the Internet for the on-line publication of the bound documents. However, if the paper based document is to be interactive in the same manner as a Web page, then the page will need to carry information in a form that can be read by an optical reader linked to the network. If this information is printed in a colorant that is visible to the human eye, then it is likely to obscure text or images printed on the page. Accordingly, the information to be read by the optical reader is printed in a colorant that is invisible to the human eye but visible to the optical reader device used.
The invisible colorant is an additional consumable that must be supplied to the printer. This adds to the number of interruptions to printer operation because of the need to periodically replenish each of the consumable materials as they deplete.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce the interruptions to a printers operation caused by the depletion of material consumed by the printer. Accordingly, the present invention provides a cartridge for a digital printer adapted to print information onto a media substrate in a form that can be read by the human eye and a form that is invisible to the human eye but readable to an optical reader device, the cartridge including:
a housing defining a plurality of storage areas wherein at least one of the storage areas contains colorant for printing information that is visible to the human eye and at least one of the other storage areas contains colorant for printing information in a form that is invisible to the human eye but readable by the optical reader device.
Preferably the colorant for printing information in a form that is invisible to the human eye but readable by the optical reader device is infrared ink.
In some preferred forms, the cartridge has a storage area for black ink.
In further preferred forms, the cartridge further includes storage areas for cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. In still further preferred forms the cartridge also provides a storage area for fixative to reduce the drying time of the ink. Preferably, each storage area is sized corresponding to expected levels of use of its contents relative to the intended print coverage for a number of printed pages.
In some embodiments the housing includes a thin walled casing adapted for engagement with a cover at its open end; and,
the storage areas are bladders wherein a separate bladder is provided for the adhesive and each different type of colorant used.
In a particularly preferred form the bladders have discharge nozzles and are adapted to be suspended from one end of the cup such that, in use, the colorant and adhesive are fed to the nozzles. Preferably the bladders are provided with means for suspending them from a pin extending through the cup adjacent the blind end. In a further preferred form the cover includes means to position the nozzles for engagement with corresponding ports in the printer.
In some preferred embodiments, the cartridge is formed from recyclable materials.
It will be appreciated that by providing a cartridge in accordance with the present invention, the xe2x80x98invisiblexe2x80x99 colorant is replenished together with the xe2x80x98usualxe2x80x99 colorants thereby reducing how frequently the printer operation is interrupted because of the depletion of a consumable material. The invention has many applications in on-line publication of newspapers, magazines, brochures and so on. The present invention will be described with particular reference to the Applicant""s netpage system. An overview of this system is set out below. It has been developed to allow a large number of distributed users to interact with networked information via printed matter and optical sensors thereby to obtain interactive printed matter on demand from high-speed networked color printers.
For this purpose, the Applicant has developed a range of netpage printers. Of these, the wallprinter is designed to be wall mounted in the area where the user would normally first consume the morning news such as in the kitchen or beside the breakfast table. In light of this, it is expected that the wallprinter will be one of the most widely used of the netpage printers and therefore it will be described in detail below to illustrate one specific embodiment of the invention. However, it will be appreciated that this is merely one example of the invention, which may be embodied in many other forms.